Reduce deadhead miles before they eat your driving hours
Every empty mile costs you twice. It burns fuel you aren't paid for, and it burns legal driving time you can't get back. Your 11-hour limit doesn't care whether the trailer is loaded; an hour of deadhead is an hour you can't spend on a paying load. Our dispatchers plan the next load before you deliver the current one, so the reload starts close to where you stop. Every load still reaches you as a rate confirmation for your yes or no.
PLANNED LATE
240 MI EMPTY
PLANNED EARLY
35 MI EMPTY
Paid vs unpaid hours: what your empty miles really cost
Put in a normal week: loaded miles, empty miles, your average speed and your gross. The striped part of each day is driving you did for free. The numbers underneath show how much of your daily 11 hours went to deadhead and what your rate looks like when you divide by every mile, not just the loaded ones.
PAID VS UNPAID HOURS · YOUR WEEKEXAMPLE NUMBERS · EDIT THEM
- Paid driving
- Unpaid (deadhead) driving
- Bar width = share of the 11-hour daily limit
- UNPAID DRIVING / WK
- 8:39
- OF YOUR DAILY 11
- 16%
- RATE / LOADED MI
- $2.70
- RATE / ALL MILES
- $2.25
Deadhead is 16% of your miles this week. Estimates spread over 5 driving days; the 11-hour limit is per 49 CFR 395.3(a)(3)(i).
That second rate is the one your bank account sees. A load that pays $2.70 a loaded mile but needs 150 empty miles to reach is a smaller load than the rate con suggests. We look at the rate per total mile, and the hours, before a load ever reaches your phone.
Deadhead is a time problem, not just a fuel problem
Most carriers think about deadhead in fuel. Fuel matters, but the bigger cost is time. The 11-hour driving limit and 14-hour window (49 CFR 395.3) cap how much you can drive each day whether the miles pay or not. Two hours of deadhead a day is two hours of legal driving you'll never be paid for, and over a week it can be most of a full day of driving.
That's why chasing a slightly higher rate with a long empty run to reach it is usually a losing trade. The higher rate pays for loaded miles; the deadhead eats the hours that could have carried another load. Planning the reload close to the delivery is the cheapest raise most carriers can give themselves.
There's a fatigue side too. Deadhead often happens at the end of a long day, when a driver decides to push toward a better market rather than park. Those are the miles where planning matters most: if the reload is already booked nearby, there's no reason to drive tired toward a maybe.
How we plan reloads before you ever unload
- 1Shop the reload before delivery
- 2Price the whole trip
- 3Time it to your break
- 4Point the week home
Shop the reload before delivery. While you're still loaded, we look at freight out of the delivery area and the next day's pickups nearby.
Price the whole trip. Each option is judged on rate per total mile, including the empty miles to reach it, and the hours it uses.
Time it to your break. The reload pickup is set for after your 10-hour break, close to where you'll park, so the day starts loaded.
Point the week home. Late-week reloads are chosen for where they deliver, so home time doesn't end with a long empty run.
Deadhead you shouldn't fight
Not every empty mile is a mistake. A short run from a weak market to a strong one can earn more than waiting for a cheap load where you are. A run home for planned home time is worth it. And sometimes the best-paying freight of the week is 60 miles away, and getting to it is simply the cost of the job.
The goal isn't zero deadhead; it's deadhead you chose, priced into the decision, instead of deadhead you discovered after delivery. When we bring you a load that needs an empty leg to reach, we tell you the miles, the hours it uses, and the rate across every mile, so the trade is yours to make. Some weeks the right answer is a little more deadhead and a much better load; we just make sure it's a decision, not an accident.
How to measure your own deadhead
Start simple. For one week, write down loaded miles and empty miles separately, then divide empty miles by total miles. Do the same for the next few weeks. That share, and the rate per total mile, tell you more about how your planning is working than any industry average. If you dispatch with us, both numbers are on your Friday report every week, so you can see whether they move.
EMPTY SHARE = EMPTY MI ÷ (LOADED MI + EMPTY MI)
A week of reload decisions
EXAMPLE, one owner-operator with a dry van based near Memphis. Monday: a load to Dallas, with the reload out of Fort Worth booked Monday afternoon while still loaded; 35 empty miles instead of a Tuesday morning board search. Tuesday: delivered in Houston; the best reload was in San Antonio, 200 miles away, so we compared it with a lower-paying load starting 20 miles from the receiver, and the closer load won on rate per total mile. Thursday: a load into a small Arkansas town paid well, and the reload back toward Memphis was booked before the driver accepted it. Friday: home. Empty miles for the week came in well under the driver's own average, and every load was confirmed by the driver first.
Deadhead planning fits any owner-operator or small fleet whose empty miles keep creeping up, or who keeps finding out about the reload after the delivery. It's part of every load we book, on every truck we dispatch. You still confirm every load, including each reload, before anything is booked in your name.
Why some deliveries come with deadhead built in
Freight doesn't flow evenly. Some areas ship far more than they receive, and some receive far more than they ship. A load into a market with little outbound freight pays well to get you there because the broker knows you'll have trouble getting out. The deadhead is already priced into that rate, whether you notice or not.
We handle those loads two ways. Either the rate has to pay for the empty run out, or we plan a short deadhead from the delivery to a stronger market where the reload is waiting. What we avoid is booking into a weak market with no plan and finding out on delivery day that the nearest decent load is 250 miles away.
What our dispatchers do about deadhead
Book ahead
Count every mile
Watch the market
Protect your hours
What deadhead planning costs you
The fee is a percentage of gross on loads you haul: 5% for one truck with authority older than 6 months, 7% for a new MC under 6 months, and 4% for fleets of 2 or more trucks while the fleet rate lasts. Deadhead miles are never charged. No setup fee, no minimums, no contract. Full pricing
Fewer empty miles, more paid hours
Apply in about 2 minutes. Every load waits for your yes.
Plan my reloads